Brighton 1-1 Newcastle: A predictable, familiar tale at the Amex
It was all sadly predictable. A week after outplaying Liverpool for an hour at Anfield and two weeks after being so dominant in the second half against Manchester City that the champions resorted to time wasting, Brighton were held to a 1-1 home draw by bottom of the table, winless Newcastle United.
A disappointing Saturday evening at the Amex once again exposed the Albion and Graham Potter’s Achilles’ heel – they struggle against any side who sits deep and defends.
Playing counter attacking football against Brighton gives you two means of getting a result. The first is by keeping a clean sheet. The Albion often lack the wherewithal to break down teams, create chances and then take them. As we saw at Norwich City.
There is also always the prospect that Brighton do something stupid with the ball through overplaying or dreadful decision making. That offers opponents the chance to score goals if they can break quick enough and punish those mistakes.
Newcastle did that for both their goal and when Robert Sanchez was sent off late on, a blueprint that caretaker manager Graeme Jones could have copied from Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, West Brom or any of the other bottom six outfits the Albion failed to beat last season.
It is all very well taking unexpected and impressive points from the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester City. That should be enough to keep you out of the relegation zone.
To be a top 10 side though, you have to take more points than you drop against the teams fighting at the wrong end of the table who set out to defend.
Brighton do not do that currently. Earlier wins against Burnley and Watford came from both those opponents attacking the Albion, playing into the Seagulls’ strengths as a counter attacking side.
Newcastle and Norwich have clearly shown the way to take points from Brighton and if the rest of the Premier League sits up, takes notice and replicates their approach, then hopes of a highest ever top flight finish could disappear over the coming winter months.
Yes, this has been a promising start to the season but no win in six is a bit of a cause for concern. That Brighton are still in seventh in the table is more indicative of the fact anyone can beat anyone outside of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City than the Albion’s recent form, which has not been great.
There were questions to be asked about the Albion’s attitude too in Brighton 1-1 Newcastle. They led 1-0 at half time without ever getting out of second gear.
Had they stepped up their performance to the levels we know they are capable of, then it could have been a repeat of Brighton 3-0 Newcastle from last season, one of those very rare occasions in the 2020-1 campaign when the Albion actually beat a fellow relegation candidate.
Instead, it was like the players believed the game was won at half time. The second half was ghastly and Brighton got exactly what they deserved and that was a 1-1 draw with Newcastle and two points dropped.
The headline news in team selection was Tariq Lamptey coming in for his first Premier League start of the season. He and Leandro Trossard were the Albion’s two best players, creating lots of opportunities throughout the opening 45 minutes.
They linked up to make the first chance of the game, Lamptey skipping away down the right before crossing to Trossard whose header was kept out by Karl Darlow.
Trossard then swung over a pinpoint corner to be met by the towering head of Shane Duffy but Darlow again was equal to it.
No prizes for guessing who earned the penalty which gave Brighton the lead midway through. Trossard was caught by Ciaran Clark following a Solly March corner and after initially giving a goal kick, referee David Coote was told to go and consult the pitch side monitor by VAR.
After what felt like a couple of hours, Mr Coote duly changed his decision. Trossard stepped up to leather home the penalty, with regular takers Neal Maupay, Pascal Gross and Alexis Mac Allister all sat on the bench.
Potter made on change at half time, replacing the injured Enock Mwepu with Alexis Mac Allister. On the face of it, Mwepu had not done much on the ball at least – but as someone pointed out on Twitter, his intelligent runs off the ball behind Trossard were causing Newcastle all manner of problems and he linked midfield and attack in a very underrated way.
Mwepu’s absence no doubt played a part in the disappointing 45 minutes that was to follow. Several more chances came and went for Brighton as Trossard, Marc Cucurella and Adam Lallana were all wasteful.
The Toon Army made the Albion pay for that when Isaac Hayden made it Brighton 1-1 Newcastle on 66 minutes. Matt Ritchie escaped down the left to hang a cross up to the back post.
That was nodded down by Clark despite a couple of Brighton player surrounding the Newcastle man and Hayden picked up the pieces, smashing home emphatically to send the 3,000 visiting fans wild.
In contrast, the home sections of the Amex were silenced. All you could hear was the away fans, especially whenever Yves Bissouma had the ball and they were “shouting at him to shoot”.
At the same time as this booing of Bissouma – a man who is yet to be charged with any sort of crime – was going on, Newcastle fans were waving around Saudi flags in support of a regime who tortured, murdered and then dismembered a critical journalist. That takes a special kind of stupid.
Things could have become even worse for Brighton in stoppage time. A dangerous combination of another attack breaking down and Brighton being a shambles at the back left Callum Wilson with a clear run at goal, ultimately resulting in that red card for Sanchez.
Sanchez is suffering the sort of dip in form all young goalkeepers go through. He was lucky that VAR spared him an embarrassing error at Anfield when he put his clearance straight at Sadio Mane.
There was no such luck in Brighton 1-1 Newcastle as he came charging from his goal, only to see Wilson skip around him. Once that happened, Sanchez had no choice but to bring Wilson down to prevent him having an empty goal to stride easily towards.
The decision to foul Wilson was actually sensible, Sanchez taking one for the team with the red card. Whether he needed to hare miles out of his box in the first place to try and intercept Newcastle’s quick break forward after Brighton had gifted the Toon Army possession is up for debate. Another error to learn from, just like away at Liverpool.
With Potter having made all three subs, Lewis Dunk took over in goal for the second time in his Albion career. There is no better sight in football than an outfield player reluctantly donning the gloves and it was a shame that so many fans missed it, the Amex having started to empty even earlier than normal.
Newcastle had a couple of minutes to try and test Dunk but luckily for Brighton, they were not able to do so and it finished 1-1.
Lord Voldemort look-a-like Jonjo Shelvey stood over a free kick 30 yards out which looked a good opportunity to ask questions of Dunk.
In a piece of decision making nearly as bad as when he trusted Professor Snape, Voldemort instead clipped the ball into the box and the danger passed.
Dunk came away then with a clean sheet, extending his shutout record to two from two appearances in goal. The fact that Gareth Southgate continues to pick Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale and Sam Johnstone ahead of Dunk in his England squad is further proof that the Three Lions boss hates Brighton.
The Albion now have a fortnight off before they travel to Aston Villa. They go to the Midlands with either Jason Steele in goal or untried and untested Dutch under 21 international Kjell Scherpen, presuming Potter doesn’t ask Dunk to do the job. Given the other options, that may not be the worst decision in the world.
Villa have lost five in a row and have sacked manager Dean Smith. Like Newcastle and Norwich, it smacks of a game which Brighton will struggle in, especially if whoever is at the helm of Villa by then realises that sitting in and containing is the way you take points from this Brighton team. Potter needs to find a way to overcome such opponents and fast.
